Page 4 of Lines

“Miss Campbell,” Mrs. Rayan voice is impassive. “I’m glad you could join us. Go in and take your seat.”

Derek

“Hey bro,” John, one of my teammates, pats me and Andrew on the back in passing. “That was a hell of a party last week!”

“You know it, man.” I grin widely at him and we fist bump.

“Same time, same place next week Johnny,” Andrew yells after him. John gives us thumbs up and continues on his way.

Andrew and I have been best friends since before we learned how to walk, or skate for the matter. We’ve been through everything together. Sometimes we feel more like brothers than just mere friends.

“Dude,” he gives me a big grin. “Don’t turn around, but miss big tits is at 12 o’clock and going straight in your direction.”

Then again, there are times like this when Drew opens his mouth and makes me question why I even bother with him. Most of the time he is so crude and doesn’t think twice before letting some shit out of his mouth.

“What the…” I start but don’t get a chance to finish. Soft hands wrap around my biceps and a sultry voice whispers in my ear, “Derek.”

It’s more like a moan, low, hushed and seducing.

I look down at her, not saying anything, barely containing rolling my eyes and sighing in distress.

“Diamond, it’s nice to see you too.” I know Drew is pissed from the edgy tone of his voice. He doesn’t like being ignored. And I always suspected he had a thing for Diamond, so the fact that she’s all over me pisses him off even more.

“Andrew,” she acknowledges him with a tilt of her head. “What are you two up to?”

“Going to class,” I tell her and take a step away from her, breaking contact from her clingy, grabby claws. “That’s what people do in school.”

Andrew laughs, which makes me roll my eyes at him. Where are we? In preschool again or something?

We start walking to our first class when those greedy hands grab onto mine again, her nails digging into my skin.

“What?” I ask, more likely growl, but my tolerance is pretty low as it is. I don’t have patience to deal with her. Now or ever.

Diamond Morgan is a pretty girl, I’ll give her that. Some may even say beautiful—curly blond hair, angel’s face with baby blues and a killer body with more than generous curves in all the right places—but I wouldn’t go that far. She’s too artificial for me, on the outside as well as on the inside. She most definitely isn’t the brightest girl in the world, which brings us here with her hand tightly wrapped around mine.

“We have the first class together, so you can take me.”

I grit my teeth and start walking faster without uttering a word.

We hooked up at the beginning of the summer on one of Andrew’s famous parties. We were both drunk off our asses, and I regretted it almost instantly. Now, weeks later, she’s still around, acting all girlfriendish, expecting dates, holding hands, and walking to classes together.

But I don’t do relationship. Everybody knows it.

I even made a point out of telling her exactly that before I left the bedroom without a second glance. However, as I’m starting to see, when Diamond Morgan gets something in her head nothing that you do or say can change her mind.

Soon enough we are in the classroom, Andrew and I sitting in the last row with other guys from the team, a small but safe distance from Diamond. We talk about hockey, practices, and the beginning of the season.

The bell rings and Mrs. Rayan, our homeroom teacher, walks into the classroom. Students lower their voices as she starts taking attendance.

She’s on letter H when the door opens. The silence is instant and utter.

I grip the edge of the desk with such force that my knuckles turn white.

There she is.

The one who hunts me.

The one I can’t get out of my head no matter what.

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